Tourism and Culture at Arco Festival: Preserving Garda’s Historical Legacy

“The Foreigner Industry” by Mauro Grazioli, one of approximately 1500 titles, from about eighty publishers, cultural associations, museums, and libraries, present at the book exhibition “Pagine del Garda”. It also serves as a springboard for a roundtable discussion scheduled for Sunday at 4 p.m., at the municipal casino to close the Arco book festival.

The event will feature the presence of the Provincial Councillor for Tourism of Trento Marco Benedetti, the President of the Union of Commerce and Tourism of Alto Garda and Ledro Enzo Bassetti, and the President of the Garda Trentino Tourist Promotion Agency Enio Meneghelli. “Many actions, ways of thinking, lifestyles, initiatives”, Bassetti writes in introducing the beautiful volume that has opened the drawer of the past, “are, have been, and will be influenced by tourism”.

Reflections on Tourism and Culture

Therefore, there is a duty to reflect, discuss, and highlight “that guiding thread that, from the beginning, has been stretched up to our days, to understand how and where this economy originates”, which the people of Garda owe much to, and to assess where it might lead.

This meeting will also prompt reflection on the need to establish a documentation center dedicated to tourism activities, the main source of the Garda economy. Recently, there has been a surge of cultural initiatives expanded to include historical documentation of the territory, natural environment, archaeological sites, minor arts; studies and research on agricultural products, craft activities, and fishing, leading to the rediscovery and reinterpretation of gastronomic recipes as well.

The Need for a Tourist Observatory

What is missing, and has not been adequately addressed considering its economic importance, is a tourist observatory that simultaneously acts as a center for collecting and documenting all that has been done, said, written, drawn about the birth, development, and evolution “of the foreigner industry”, which has been the driving force behind the most significant and interesting initiatives in the Benacus area.

Returning to the Arco book festival, now in its eighth edition, displaying interesting analyses and local cultural initiatives, prominently features the substantial volume “Ecclesiae”, presented during the Millennium Jubilee by the “Sommolago” Association.

This work is the result of an exceptional commitment by many scholars aimed at all churches of the Lower Sarca, “rich in mainly historical information with particular attention to the events of the community where each church is located”. Among the new offerings (much in demand) is also the collection of photographs and writings by Lieutenant Giuseppe Cipelli, which Domenico Fava compiled and elaborated in the volume “The Great War on the Front between Garda and Ledro”.

Also worth a visit (opening hours 9:30-12; 15-18:30) is the exhibition “Ljubov” Dostoevskaja in Arco, created in collaboration with the Rus association of Bolzano and the literary museum F.M. Dostoevskij of Saint Petersburg.